Monday, November 12, 2007

Chesini INNOVATION Project Finished

I took out my Chesini INNOVATION project bike on its maiden ride on Saturday and was extremely, more like fantastically, pleased that it rides as well as it looks.

Chesini is the oldest bike company in Verona, dating back to 1925. Today, Chesini continues to offer bikes ranging from full carbon, Ti, alu/carbon, and steel. The INNOVATION model dates back to approximately 1992. It has many attributes that appealed to me to build a project around: Colombus EL-OS tubeset, chromed lugs, chainstays, and seatstays, engraving, and a patented sloping design which is quite interesting in terms of how it was executed. It's very unique and that's something I like in a bike as well. When I purchased it, for a ridiculously low price as steel is being abandoned in Italy faster than the speed of light, there were things I didn't like such as the yellow paint and unicrown fork, but clearly it had a lot of potential:

The goal of the project was to build up a unique, modern looking bike built around a lugged steel frame and to reduce as much weight as my budget allowed. This would involve a repaint of the frame, using a modern carbon fork, and lightweight components. Many of the parts came from a combination of my stash of components and the transfer of the Shimano group from my Pinarello Marvel (now retired).

Discussing paint choices with Paolo, a partner at Chesini, we settled on a pearl white with red lettering both to highlight the lugs and to pickup the white lettering on the carbon fork. The engravings would be in red to also match the lettering on the fork and my old Mavic Helium wheels. The chief mechanic at Chesini, Andrea, was responsible for the build; Andrea wheeling out the finished product:

Side view, and details: The engraved headtube logo depicts a C (for Chesini) superimposed on the "Arena" which is the Roman coliseum in Verona. The engraving on the seattube lug, "Brevetto", indicates that the design is patented. The model name, INNOVATION, is engraved on the headtube and bottom bracket.

One week after I finished this project I found this INNOVATION photo in my collection of Chesini catalog photos I had taken almost 2 years ago, and had forgotten about:

This INNOVATION was on Italian ebay in January, 2008. It was apparently one of a serialized edition. It has a very nice chrome fork, aero type shifters on the down tube, cut-out BB, and a fully chromed rear triangle. It did not have chromed lugs and I notice that it does not have bladed chainstays:

This Innovation EL-OS frame was on English ebay in March, 2008; the chainstays are rounded and the seatstays are fully chromed:

Addendum: In December, 2007, I learned of a similar design that was created in England, a 1991 Dave Lloyd Concept 90 frame. The details: "Dave Lloyd was one of the best and promising British road riders in the early 1970s riding for Peter Post’s all conqeuring Raleigh team but his career was blighted by an irregular heart rythym which forced a premature retirement. He came back four years later as an amateur winning 125 time trials out of 133 entered and several important road races before turning pro again in 1985 for two years. He opened his first shop in the mid 1970s and whilst riding as a pro had learnt some framebuilding from the fabbled Harry Quinn. He went to learn the trade properly from Terry Dolan in the mid 80s before setting his framebuilding business up in 1986. The Concept 90 sloping top tube design was custom built (and silver brazed without lugs) to fit each rider. The sloping top tube was used to reduce the size of the main triangle and thus improve frame stiffness. And the seat tube of the Concept 90 was quite normal in length – with a long extension above the top tube. It was only the rear end of the top tube that was dropped to meet the seat tube further down. The rear stays are brought in to meet the seat tube at the height of the top tube in a clever and very stylish fashion with a wishbone arrangement for the seatstay top end – this was very was novel on a road frame in the early 1990s and looked exceptionally neat. The head tube height was quite conventional. Overall the result was a tremendous looking frame which was at the time quite original in appearance and is already a true classic design." The frame is believed to have been built with either Reynolds 653 or 753.

I have only seen 3 of these frames in two years; the one I have + 2 others (which were being ridden). I suspect they didn't make many. I have also seen a photograph of an INNOVATION in a catalog that has curved seatstays; I have never seen one of these types in person.

What a great article, thank you so much for sharing! I have been a Chesini fan and collector for only about 5 years -- here's my two track bikes (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1425/1412666289_09ef51d7f0.jpg?v=1190305188)

Beautiful bicycle, the transformation was very well thought out and exectuted. I look forward to seeing more!-B

Bellisimo bike! The blue, red & yellow frame you have pictured is now in Australia, I bought it from ebay, also picked up a 'chesini' embossed quill stem, still deciding what to do with it, I have a chorus 7 speed gruppo, any suggestions?

Breezy412: Nice! Is your Columbus EL-OS? If it is you'll be in for a treat. Mine is stiff and fast. Build it up as you prefer, I went the modern components route. And, everyone always comments about this unusual bike. If you search within my blog under CHESINI you'll find the email address for the owner and you can ask him about purchasing Chesini accessories (caps, gloves, hats, jerseys, etc.)

Please do send a photo when your project is completed. If you mention my blog and send a photo to Paolo I think he will send you Chesini decals if he has ones to match your originals, or he can send you another style (again, search my blog under Chesini and you'll also find photos of different bikes); maybe you'll find a style you like.